Nabokov, Nicolas [Nikolay]

(d) Palaeo-Frankish notation.

Palaeo-Frankish neumes (fig.26) were first discussed by Handschin (1950) and Jammers (1952; see also, Tafeln, 1965, pls.34–6); sources are surveyed by Hourlier and Huglo (1957). Their name is due to Handschin, who regarded them as the forerunner of accent neumes. The connotations of the term are, however, problematic, and with hindsight the alternative designation ‘St Amand notation’ might be more appropriate (see Huglo, 1990, p.239). The notation appears to have been used in a restricted area including several important monasteries of Picardy and Hainault – Corbie, St Bertin, Anchin, Marchiennes – with the abbey of St Amand as its possible centre and an important outpost at Corvey on the Weser. They are last found at St Amand in the 12th century. The chief distinguishing feature of the notation is that the pes and clivis are represented by a single straight or slightly curved stroke; there is thus no virga. The torculus tends to be a simple semicircle. There is no distinction between oriscus and quilisma. In this notation, if anywhere, a strong connection seems to exist to the oratorical accents of the grammarians (Atkinson, 1995). Few sources are available in facsimile, so the degree of variance in neume forms and resemblances to other types of neumes cannot yet be assessed accurately. Since the two- and three-note neumes are sometimes ‘split’ into puncta, this notation has been reckoned among the ‘rhythmic’ types, perhaps the earliest such, implying that the distinction between slower and faster delivery was present in the minds of chant scribes from the very beginning. (For a hypothetical line of development, tracing a link between Palaeo-Frankish neumes and the notations of Brittany, Aquitaine and Laon, see Hourlier and Huglo, 1957, p.218.)

Notation, §III, 1(iv): Plainchant: Early notations, 9th–11th centuries

(e) Breton notation.

Breton notation (fig.27) is found chiefly in sources from north-west France, but also in 10th- and 11th-century sources from Pavia. Huglo's survey (AcM, 1963) shows a progressive retreat from the south-west (some features appear in early manuscripts from St Martial at Limoges), the Loire valley, Chartres, Maine, and Normandy south of the Seine. It was superseded by French notation in Angers by the turn of the millennium, but survived in the backwater of Brittany until the mid-12th century. Some 10th-century sources from southern England also use Breton notation (Rankin, 1984). In view of its obvious antiquity and simplicity, Huglo (op. cit., 82) and Stäblein (1975, p.30) thought it might at one time have been propagated widely throughout the Carolingian empire. As in Palaeo-Frankish notation (from which it may derive), the same sign is used where in other notations either an oriscus or a quilisma would be employed. Since the two- and three-note neumes are sometimes ‘split’ into puncta, this notation has been reckoned among the ‘rhythmic’ types (see Ménager, 1912). One of the principal sources, F-CHRm 47 (facs. in PalMus, 1st ser., ix, 1906), may be dated as early as the late 9th century and probably comes from Rennes. (For facs. see Bannister, 1913, pls.60–62; Suñol, 1925, Fr. trans., 2/1935, pp.256–9; Jammers, Tafeln, 1965, pls.40–41).

Notation, §III, 1(iv): Plainchant: Early notations, 9th–11th centuries

(f) Messine (Lorraine, Laon) notation.

Messine notation (for illustration see fig.28) was used in north-east France, in an area including most of the archbishopric of Reims, bounded in the east by the Vosges, Eifel and Hunsrück. Towards the south and west it was not sharply detached from the area of French neumes. A special variant appeared as early as the 10th century near Lake Como (Sesini, 1932).

The earliest complete source to survive is F-LA 239 (facs. in PalMus, 1st ser., x, 1909), written in or near Laon about 930. Its repertory of signs is remarkably rich; each basic sign has variant forms (graphical variants, variants in the inner articulation of the sign, also significative letters). The basic sign for single notes is a small hook (uncinus). Characteristic signs include the clivis in the form of an Arabic ‘7’ and the cephalicus in the form of an Arabic ‘9’. The direction of the script is diagonal ascending, vertical descending.

Similarly detailed studies of other manuscripts with Messine notation are not yet available. (Jeffery, 1982, and Hourlier, 1988, both discuss other very early examples; the main survey of sources is Hourlier, 1951. See also Lipphardt, 1955 and 1957; Arbogast, 1959; Cardine, 1968, Eng. trans., 1982; Corbin, 1977, pp.87–94. For facs. see PalMus 1st ser., iii, 1892, pls.154–65; Bannister, 1913, pls.55b–59b; Suñol, 1925, Fr. trans., 2/1935, p.248–55; Stäblein, 1975, pls.63–4.)

Notation, §III, 1(iv): Plainchant: Early notations, 9th–11th centuries

(g) Aquitanian notation.

This notation (fig.29) was used over a wide area of south-west France, roughly corresponding to the Frankish province of Aquitania, and consists predominantly of discrete points. A virga, in the form of a point with a tail attached, is not found standing alone but as the final note of the pes or scandicus. The torculus is almost the only conjunct neume, formed of punctum plus virga joined to the final punctum. The quilisma is distinctive: after the initial punctum an almost vertical slash with initial hook is joined to the tail of the final virga. The earliest substantial source is the 10th-century miscellany from Limoges F-Pn lat.1240, whose principal scribes used Aquitanian notation, although some Breton and northern French neumes are also present.

Even before the end of the millennium scribes would use a dry-point line as a vertical orientation for music notation (the usual lines drawn for entering text would therefore be used alternately for text and music), usually for the 3rd above the final in authentic modes and the final in plagal modes (but F rather than E for mode 4). In some manuscripts a deliberate distinction seems to be made between dot and dash, possibly meaning shorter and longer notes respectively. In other sources the scribe seems simply to alternate the two, especially in descending climacus figures. In some sources, particularly F-Pn lat.903 (from St Yrieix; partial facs. in PalMus, 1st ser., xiii, 1925/R), alternative forms of the virga are used. A semicircular virga appears for the note on the lower step of a semitone (E, B etc.), a further type, the so-called virga cornu (‘horned’ virga), signifies the upper step of the semitone. Not dissimilar in shape to the latter is the virga strata (virga+oriscus). Even though the vertical placement of the notes is particularly exact in most sources from the mid–11th century onwards, clefs were not used, and custodes but rarely, so that in the case of non-standard pieces the aid of the virga at the semitone is often useful for determining pitch. (The principal analysis of the notation is that of Ferretti in PalMus, xiii, 1925. For facs. see PalMus, 1st ser., ii, 1891, pls.83–103; Bannister, 1913, pls.63–4; Suñol, 1925, Fr. trans., 2/1935, pp.260–82; Jammers, Tafeln, 1965, pls.29–30; Stäblein, 1975, pls.31–5; Corbin, 1977, pls.19–20.)

Notation, §III, 1(iv): Plainchant: Early notations, 9th–11th centuries